Inconceivable
by heavymetalaibou
Summary: He was attacked that fateful night, and lost the Puzzle with Yugi in it. That was hard enough. Then Yami learned of the woman who made him a guinea pig with the prick of a needle. Now Yami must trust his friends with his secret, and his and Yugi's lives.
1. Introduction

_Somewhere. Where and when doesn't matter. One year ago._

_The meeting convened. The colors and figures blurred into almost nothing in that dark, smoky room, as two sat down at the great long table. Neither person dared to say names; there was no need to, they knew one another anyhow, and intimately at that. _

_There were more important things at stake than the lack of polite introductions._

_"A robbery." One spoke, his voice full of barely-restrained anger as he rubbed his hand onto his bearded face. "Shit. Of _all _things. Of all _ people_-"_

_"That's why it happened." A lighter flickered open, and the cigarette lit, faintly and briefly illuminating the grey hair of its holder as he spoke. "I told you it would."_

_There was a numb silence. The implications hit the bearded man hard and quick as he leaned back in his chair, staring at the folder in front of him._

_Gone. The work of a lifetime, the miracle known as Agent W. Secret but special, people had died to make it a reality. And now it was gone. _Stolen

_"...You know this happened because of _you_, doctor."_

_"Oh, now you're just jumping to conclusions." The grey-haired man casually blew smoke out of his mouth. "You know as well as I do that she was liable to do this before she signed on. If anyone's to blame, it's the oversight board that got her hired."_

_"Because you recommended her. Your-"_

_"Now, now." The grey-haired man's voice became slightly terse. "Let's not point fingers. That was in the past, let us focus on the now. The problem of now is that she still had security access, and that's how this happened. We'll have to revoke it so this isn't repeated on any other campus, though I doubt she'll return."_

_"Because now almost everything has been destroyed or stolen." The grey-haired man looked at the bearded man, clearly his boss, as he spoke. "All that's left is a handful of samples that she might have taken."_

_"Yes, _her _samples." The grey-haired man looked lazily away. "And that's all she really wanted. The rest was just to spite us. She has copies of all the paperwork. She's probably already burned the ones she stole now."_

_"Because she-"_

_"Mmmhmm." A lazy nod. "The credit. She wants it, because they're _her _samples. Call it personal."_

_Silence save for the grey-haired man taking a puff from his cigarette and blowing it out._

_"You don't think I know how personal it got for her? Agent W was personal for all of us." The bearded man coughed. "Damnit, put that out."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because this is a no-smoking facility!"_

_"Too bad."_

_"'Too bad'." The bearded man shook his head. "This is why I blame you. Our research, our science, thirty years and two generations of life put into this project, and you sit there like it's just another day. I could ruin your career, you know-"_

_"Sure you could," the doctor smirked. "And I know you would try. But just because you can doesn't mean you _should_."_

_"And why not?"_

_"Because I know a little more about this than you do, sir." The man took a piece of paper out of his pocket. "You may know the basics of our project, but in the end you're still just a bureaucrat. A overseeing yes man to the CDC. I'm a scientist and a doctor, and I save and keep lives. And what's more, I know more people than you'd like to think. Your campaign to ruin me wouldn't last a day."_

_"Using your connections." The boss' voice turned sour. "Of course. I should have known you'd bring them up to keep your license."_

_"Au contraire," the doctor chuckled. "It is not I who need them. Right now they need me."_

_"Eh?" The boss stood up. "What do you mean?"_

_"They came to me this morning." The doctor put the piece of paper on the table. "They know about her and know what kind of damage it can do to the legacy of the project - and of course her propensity to involve innocent bystanders. In fact, I informed all of the pertinent contacts three months ago that she might go rogue after her decommissioning, so we were all expecting it to happen. We just weren't sure /i how i ."_

_"What-!?"_

_"They've given me all of the necessary instructions, and as we speak the CDC is making an emergency allotment for me to use, as they consider this an international medical crisis." A grin formed on the grey-haired man's face. "So sorry I'm leaving you out of the loop yet again. But in the end it was necessary, because everyone important knows I'm prepared to _do _what's necessary."_

_"...I can't believe this." The boss wiped his forehead. "You're really going to do this. You're going to go after her on your own."_

_"Yes, and do what I can to help her victims. This is all officially out of your hands." The grin widened. "Have no fear. You will be left blameless of anything that happens from here on out. Unlike you, I have no intention of ruining _your _career."_

_"And what about you?" The boss looked at him pointedly. "What will happen to you?"_

_"Damage control." The doctor inhaled again. "Save as many as I can, if they can be saved. There's no telling what will happen or who she'll target. There's no telling how many will die because of this."_

_The smoke hung heavily in the air as the doctor blew out again, and silence once more reigned over the two. There was so much for him to think about - where she'd hit, what age she'd go for, what countries she might flee to. But he knew she had no specific preferences - it simply had to be someone who would carry out what she wanted. And what she wanted was, perhaps, beyond the known boundaries of science; it was possible in theory, but biologically dangerous. Deadly, even. It had never been successful before and even with technology evolving as it had it would still be exceedingly difficult._

_Many lives would be at stake, yes. People's lives would be destroyed, yes. People were even going to die, yes, because of the nature of Agent W. Agent W was simply not meant to be put into certain people, and he knew this - always did. And if the scenario his former colleague wanted were to ever be successful, he was determined to do what was necessary to make sure it never happened again - at any expense._

_"...Well!" Finally the doctor cheerfully clapped his hands together - startling his now former boss - and he put his cigarette out on the table as he got up. "I've got to go. _Someone _here's got to deal with the crazy bitch, and it may as well be me, yeah?"_

_"Mark! This table i-"_

_"Toodles!"_

_The boss was cut off by the slamming door. With a cheerful hum in his throat, the doctor adjusted his lab coat, put his lighter into his pocket and strolled down the hall, giving everyone a cheerful wave as he headed towards the exit._

_It was the kind of thrilling cat-and-mouse chase the doctor had hoped for, and he was going to enjoy every moment of it._


	2. Number I

**INCONCIEVABLE**

**Number I **

**_Something Lost and Gained_**

* * *

Domino, Japan. July. School was out long ago, the children had gone home. Work was finished as well, at least for most. The lights of the city skyscrapers remained on, the colorful evening skyline naturally dominated by the monstrous building that was home to the world's youngest billionaire. Other buildings did their best, illuminating reds and purples and - in the case of the French embassy - the national colors. It was Bastille Day. 

The streets and sidewalks were not crowded as 9:30 came, but there were still people milling about. Parents looking for a quite-fix meal for their children, vendors hawking their goods, and the occasional gawker who stopped to watch the three-story-high DBN television screen with it's stories on Bush and China and the rumored resignation of the prime minister. In other words, it was much like any night.

Yet along the streets the figure walked, dressed from head to toe in black, hair curled up into a black hat. The black clothing and especially the wool coat were atypical of the hot weather, and the large trundle bag incurred some amused stares. Fashion or even social acceptance, however, were low on the figure's list of priorities.

Carrier. She needed a new carrier, and quickly. But she was running low on her supply. The supply was everything, and she could not waste anymore on those who could not do what she needed them to do. Once it was gone, it was gone; she had to pick carefully now who would be next.

With that, the figure continued to walk, her eyes looking left and right underneath dark sunglasses, hoping to finally find what she was looking for. The one person that would _finally_ give birth to her dreams of glory and justice.

Of revenge.

------------

"Other me, there you are. You're _finally_ up! You won't believe what happened today after school!" Black sneakers connected briskly onto the concrete sidewalk. "There was a car accident!"

"_...A car accident?_" Hands wiped half-awake eyes. "_That doesn't sound like something to be cheerful about, partner._"

"Oh, no, it was actually pretty funny!" Yugi Motou was grinning as he grasped his backpack. "The back of this truck opened and cans of soft drink flew out and hit the front of the principal's car as they were driving! The principal's card was completely ruined."

"_And that was a good thing?_"

"Well...no," Yugi kept smiling. "But the driver stopped and asked what he could do to repair the damages...and the principal said he had to give every student in his school a free drink! So I have some mango and grapefruit soda in my backpack that I'll have when I study tonight!"

"_...I guess it _was _a good thing, then._"

At this, Yugi turned and gave a toothy grin towards the figure next to him. To almost everyone else, had they looked at that moment they would have seen the small but formidable card duelist - the official King of Games and recent Champion of Battle City - talking to nothing but the wall. But in truth there was someone there, someone who had been with Yugi for some time, someone who shared both body and mind with the boy, if not soul.

"_Aaah, partner,_" Yami no Yugi - the 'other' Yugi that aided in Yugi's fights, the nameless ancient pharaoh - gave a yawn. "_Sorry if I seem tired. I spent all night doing some card exercises._"

"Card exercises?"

"_I was just trying out some various strategies with the Gods,_" Yami nodded. "_To see how well I could do in a duel with and without them now that they're in my deck. I lost track of time, though, so if you were feeling tired at all today..._"

"Oh...no, not at all!" Yugi laughed. "I didn't notice a thing."

"_You're certain...?_"

As Yugi talked, he didn't notice the shadows slowly coming up behind him. They kept their distance, just enough to deflect any impression that they were following the boy. Yami, however, turned around to yawn again, and he caught one of the shadows in the corner of his eye.

_Huh? Who..._

"Of course I'm certain!" Yugi seemed unaware of the danger. "Actually, speaking of cards, I got some new ones before you woke up, so we can add them to the de-"

"_Partner._" The pharoah's voice abruptly lowered, his mouth set in a frown. "_Don't speak so rashly. Start talking to me through the soul rooms, right now._"

"Wh..." Yugi stopped speaking at the tone of his friend's voice, and within seconds his voice echoed on the inside of his mind, the the eye on the Millennium Puzzle around his neck pulsing softly with light. "_Other me? What's wrong?_"

"_I think we're being followed. Don't do anything abrupt, and don't look behind you._" Yugi bit his lip as the spirit spoke. "_Keep walking until I can figure out what to do._"

Yugi immediately obeyed, and he continued walking with a quickened pace for several blocks, hoping that his other self would perhaps end up being wrong. For his part, Yami brought his hand on Yugi's tensed shoulder and turned his head around every couple of feet as they walked, hoping, also, that he was wrong.

The shadows did not disappear at all; in fact, the number of them increased. Soon there were five boys, all who looked to be college-age, following Yugi, all of them keeping enough distance to allow people to pass them as they walked, making their congregation on the sidewalk seem harmless enough.

Yami's hand clenched onto Yugi's arm.

"_Turn here, partner._"

"G-"

"_Stay calm. If you need me to, I'll take over._"

"_I..._" Yugi closed his eyes. "_All right._"

"Hey."

The boy had turned into a dark alley, perfect for the five to follow him in without any distractions. In Yugi's mind, of course, he was doing all he can to keep his knees from knocking together at the situation. Why did his other self have to pick _this_ area of all places, where anything could happen without witnesses at that time of night? Couldn't he have stopped at a brightly-lit area, where people could see what was happening, just in case...?

As Yugi began to fret over what was going to happen and why, the light within the Puzzle's eye brightened, illuminating the alleyway even as the figures entered the alleyway. Each of them smiled at the sigh of the boy's shaking back.

"Motoh Yugi?"

"...Yes."

Outwardly, the manner of the boy's voice, and his shaking posture, suddenly changed at the question, becoming straighter, more menacing. As he answered the eyes turned and narrowed as he surveyed the five boys who were finally stepping towards him, finally making their intentions clear. All of them looked quite capable of doing damage if they decided to fight him, and a fight looked inevitable to Yami. There was little time to acclimate to taking control of the body; there was nothing but ill-will written on the would-be attackers' faces.

"King of Games," one of them smiled as he reached a hand out - by his movements, he seemed to be the ringleader of the bunch. "Can I have an autograph?"

"...No." Yami's response was blunt. "I don't give out autographs."

"Can we see your God Cards, then?" There was a snicker. "We heard they were really cool. Can we?"

"Yeah, we can hardly wait to see them, right?"

"We've all been waiting since Battle City ended..."

"...Is that why you followed me for fifteen minutes?" Yami's eyes narrowed further. "You'll be disappointed. I'm afraid I don't carry such valuable cards with me so casually, so you'll just have to wait even longer to see them."

"_Other me?_"

"_I'll be careful._" Yami felt sweat begin to form on his brow as he spoke to Yugi through their soul rooms. "_Be warned, I may have to use my powers if it gets out of hand._"

"_But other me-_"

"_Don't worry,_" Yami smiled to himself as he watched Yugi's spirit dissipate into the Puzzle, seeing his eyes fill with worry. "_I should be fine._"

"Oh, how upsetting," A second one shrugged as they begn to move in closer. "Celebrities. They're so rude to their fans. How are we ever going to get over it?"

"Heheh..." The third one wiped his nose. "I can think of a few ways we can cheer ourselves up. Why not play a card game with Mr. Superiority?"

"Card game?" The others chuckled as the ringleader touched Yami's shoulder. "I can think of other things we caAAAAAUGH!!"

The boy was suddenly on the ground back-first, groaning, and his friends were gasping at the sight. Yami, for his part, looked down at the boy with complete disinterest and annoyance. It was quite pathetic that they even thought he would be so stupid as to carry the Egyptian Gods on him to school - or anywhere, for that matter, that did not involve the mission to recover his memories. Of course, they had no need to know about the mission, but that was besides the point.

"Petty thieves," he mumbled as he looked up at the other four. "Clearly you don't know what you're doing or who you're dealing with."

"Why you-"

"Little bastard-"

"Punk-"

"GET HIM!!"

A small little smirk came onto the pharaoh's face as he brought his arm across his chest; on his head the eye of Wadjat began to form. It wouldn't have been an impossible task to get all four of them at once with a mind crush; it would obviously be harder to do than if it had been one person. Nevertheless, it appeared all of the thugs needed a little attitude adjustment, and Yami was more than happy to provide it.

What he wasn't counting on was for the ringleader to recover so quickly.

"Min-UGH!"

The kick, such as it was, went right into the back of Yami's shin, and he instantly fell towards the ground, the eye of Wadjat flickering briefly before disappearing. He didn't even touch it before a hard kick to his stomach sent him flying back up, right into the arms of one of the thugs.

"_O-other me!?_" From within Yami's mind, he could hear Yugi panicking. "_What happened!? What...!?_"

"Oh yeah, _we_ don't know what we're doing!" Two of the remaining thugs helped the ringleader up while the other punched his fist into his hand. "That's what _you_ think-!"

A fist hit Yami square in the chest, causing him to gasp out in pain and also rendering him almost helpless to escape. After the ringleader regained his composure, he gave the boy a roundhouse kick to his side, up towards his armpit. Pain shot through Yami as he sputtered and convulsed from the impact. But he didn't fall; the tight grip of his chortling keeper ensured he stayed upright, lest he preferred breaking his shoulder and collar bones trying to escape.

"Sh...shit...stupid..."

"YEAH!" Immediately the four thugs were on him, each taking turns punching and kicking him with ferocity in his torso, his face, his legs. "Shit is _right_!"

"Think you can just attack our leader and get _away_ with it!?"

"Stop, stop, I want to get him there!"

"Hahaha!"

"_Other me!!_" Yugi's spirit reformed and gasped as he saw the thugs punch and kick his other self. "_No!! I have to make them stop, I have to-_"

"_Partner!!_" Outwardly, Yami was gasping for air from the beating as a trickle of blood ran down his mouth; inwardly, he was trying to do his best to stay conscious for Yugi's sake. "_Don't...d-don't switch with me!_"

"_But-_"

"_DON'T! It's too-_"

Yami's thoughts abruptly cut off with one well-placed punch to the jaw; spit and blood flew out of his mouth. Before he could regain himself, he was punched again near his left eye, and he immediately fell limp in the thugs' arms.

"_OTHER ME!!_"

"Too easy." The leader of the thugs went directly for his deck pouch. "Hey, you guys, check his schoolbag! Quickly before someone sees!"

"_Other me!! __**NO!!**_" Yugi frantically pulled on Yami's hand, but the pharaoh gave no response. He then tried to pull on the arms of the thug searching his left pocket to no avail. "_You monsters! Let him go! Let him go now!!_"

"...Shit!" There was a curse from the schoolbag searcher. "Nothing here, just these damn books!"

"Just loose change in here..." Those searching the pockets fingered the money that was there. "Shit, none of this stuff is what we promised to sell!"

"No cards..." Exasperated, the ringleader flung the cards to the ground. "Buyer's going to be pissed off. How're we going to explain this to him? He specifically said he wanted those god cards."

"Wait...what about this?"

Fingers touched the Millennium Puzzle, which glinted in the faint alley light. At this, Yugi felt himself get a shiver, and his body began to shake in fear at the sight. They couldn't take _that_, could they? They wouldn't...

"Buyer isn't going to want this!" The ringleader rolled his eyes. "Buyer specifically said get the god cards so she could use them for tournament play. If we don't give her what she wants, our contract...!"

"...But wait, look!" The boy who fingered the Puzzle held it up. "This is gold. Pure _gold_. This thing had got to be at least ten kilos! And it looks like it could be important."

"Hey, man, he's got a point!" At this, the one holding Yami up spoke. "Ten kilos of _gold_? That's got to be worth _way_ more than the 9 million our buyer promised us for the cards!(1)"

"_What!?_" Yugi gasped, then began to shout as loud as he could, shaking his other self violently. "_Other me! Wake up!! Please!! WAKE UP!!_"

There was no response; Yami had been knocked out. Attempting to switch out of the body didn't work, either; Yami was unable to activate the process in his state and neither spirit had been taken out of the body to force a switch. Even retreating into the Puzzle and banging on the pharaoh's soul door produced nothing for Yugi,.

"...I don't know. We've got the contract with the buyer, and if we do that we lose out on any perks we got beforehand."

"Come on, boss!" The ringleader looked at his partners, all of them with pleading eyes. "We can still null the contract anyway, right? _This_ is our ticket! It's not like there aren't other people after those cards, but _this_..."

"_WAKE UP!!_" Yugi's eyes began to fill with desperate tears as he banged harder on his partner's door. "_PLEASE!! I'VE GOT TO STOP THEM!!_"

"...Ok, fine!" Part exasperation, part curiosity as to the potential financial benefits of pilfering the artifact caused the ringleader to cave in. "Just get it off of him, and hurry! Before someone really _does_ see us!"

"Right!"

"DO IT!!"

With a rough yank, the group ripped the chain off of the unconscious duelist's body. With their prize in hand, the thug holding the pharoah let him drop, and he fell to the ground like a rag doll.

"_**OTHER M**__--T--GO-----..._"

Yugi's voice and body, like radio static, clung on for a few more seconds even after the Puzzle was taken. However, as soon as it left the vicinity of his body, the spirit vanished, as did Yugi's soul room, leaving nothing but blackness where is had been.

_...part...ner..._

Yami's eyes fluttered open briefly to see figures running away from him as he lay bruised and bleeding. He thought he'd heard someone scream, someone he knew, but the pain was too great for him to know exactly who had scream; with the last of his strength he tried to get to his soul room door to try and tell Yugi he would be okay, that they did their attack for nothing.

_...par..._

He fell and lay still inches from the door, and in the outside world everything became black.

----------

She saw what happened. At least, saw the end of it. She had almost bumped into one of the offenders as they fled, a large gold item slung around on of their necks.

She shrugged them off as they fled, confident that they would not be caught. Stopping petty robbery was not of any interest to her, nor was upholding the law in any way at this point. On the contrary, such incidences, such crimes always had a positive effect on her, for it created _opportunity_

She bowed her head down as she walked into the alleyway, surveying the scene. The victim was a schoolboy, his bags and books scattered everywhere, but that did not interest her. Also on the ground were game cards, but that did not interest her either. Instead she went directly to the unconscious body and checked his pulse, then checked to see if he responded to her touch in any way. He did not.

_Perfect._

Without wasting any time she rolled him over, pulled off his school jacket and lifted his shirt up nodding in approval. He was bruised a bit, but it only would have mattered if she was injecting something into his veins. As it was, any spot in his abdomen would do. And he was clearly physically fit, so he would have no problems taking it...

Flicking open her purse, she took out an alcohol pad and quickly rubbed it over a patch of skin barely an inch below the right side of his navel. Then she took out her favorite instrument of them all - the eight-inch-long needle, it's pinpoint covered by a single plastic cap. Inside the syringe was a thick yellow liquid, which almost looked like pig fat. She didn't stop her procedure to admire it, as she once did; there was little time for her to relish what was about to happen.

With a single, forceful movement, she jammed the needle into the boy's stomach, knowing from experience how far in to go before she accidentally hit a vital organ. The body flopped a little at the needle's entrance, but the figure held on easily; she was used to the reflex by now. It was always a release for her, always made her insides react, knowing she had control and that in the state they were in her patients - her _specimens_ - could not resist. She could not help but give out a breathy chuckle knowing she would get away with it again.

She didn't stop until the syringe was empty, then she yanked it out again, causing a trickle of blood to come out of the raw mark she'd made. Satisfied, perhaps also spent, the figure used her thumb to smear as much blood and alcohol off the area as she could before pulling the boy's shirt back down and hurrying away from the scene. The syringe and the swab returned to a purse pocket, undetected by those walking past her. The figure slipped into the Domino night, noticed only by the occasional stare toward her unseasonal dress.

It was done. What had been planted inside the boy, she knew, would do the rest on its own from there on out. It would find a place to settle and start its work, it always did. And the body would not reject it. _Could_ not, no matter what. It was truly a triumph of modern science. _Her_ triumph. _She _was behind it all. And soon enough the world would know. She was sure of it.

Now all she had to do was wait and watch what happened.

* * *

_Footnotes:_

_1. The actual amount offered to the thugs for all three god cards was about 8.7 million yen, which is approximately $75,000/$25,000 per god card. I estimated that the Puzzle was about ten kilos, or 22 pounds heavy. Using that weight and multiplying with the gold standard per ounce, the Puzzle "costs" (though technically you can't put a price on an ancient artifact) $260,480, or approximately 30.5 million yen - more than three times the return for the thieves. Sources: Yahoo!Finance and the good old metric conversion formula (2.2 pounds 1 kilo, of course)._


	3. Number II

**INCONCIEVABLE**

**Number II**

**_One Soul Room Short_**

* * *

_"Partner...Partner..."_

_It was quiet, too quiet. Yami's eyes opened, finding himself sprawled on the floor of his soul room. He hurt all over, though at first he did not understand why; his memory of what happened was blurry, going back only to the moment he was about to mind crush his opponents-_

_Then he saw the door to his soul room swing open, and saw the blackness outside. Nothing, nothing but a howling void where Yugi's room had been_

_"Partner!?"_

_He tried to get up, but found he could not. Calling out to his partner, he started to crawl, holding his hand out towards the door. Yugi had to hear him. The blackness couldn't be what he thought it was...he couldn't be- _

_When the spirit's hand was a mere inch from the door, it suddenly slam shut, almost taking Yami's hand with it. With a cry he fell forward, only to land on a patch of thorny vines._

_"AUUUUGH!"_

_As he screamed, a bright light suddenly descended from the unreachable top of the ancient labyrinth. The eye of Wadjet flashed inside the light, it's pupil glowing red._

_"_Pharoah..._" A soft, feminine voice echoed through the soul room, letting out a breathy chuckle as the ground began to shake. "_Phaaaaaroah..._."_

_"Who are you!?" Yami struggled for freedom, to no avail. "Wh-where is he!? What-"_

_"_...I'm going to get..._" the voice whispered as the stairways began to collapse. "_...the Nobel Prize...!_"_

_"WHAT? NO-"_

_The pharoah tried to shout, but the wind was suddenly knocked out of him by a brick that fell on his back; the impact caused the ground to give way. He began to fall, fall with the debris into the blackness that now marked where Yugi once lived, but lived no more, all because of-_

_"PARTNER!!" Underneath him, the faint red silhouette of a door began to form. "__**PARTNER!!! PA-**_uwaa-!!"

Yami's eyes bolted open, his heart beating furiously. The soul room was gone, its crumbling foundations replaced by a hospital bed and sterile lights. No eye illuminated over the Domino skyline, no voices mocked him. Next to him, a mechanical IV drip beeped as it administered more morphine into the vein in his hand. His battered school clothing hung over a chair in the corner.

_Where..._ He shut his eyes, trying to adjust to the light in the room. _Am I...?_

"...in this...!! Stop-"

"Yugi!!"

Yami's heart, still beating furiously, almost stopped when the door to his room was flung open, smashing into the wall next to it. In ran a blonde boy, gasping for air as he skidded to a halt.

"Young _man_!" At this, a nurse stomped into the room. "I told you, _no_ running! Any more horseplay and I'll have you thrown out!"

"Whatever. Yugi!" Katsuya Jounouchi, still out of breath, blew the nurse off and looked at the bedridden boy, an expression of relief on his face. "You're ok! Thank good...ness...?"

The relief was almost immediately tempered by surprise, followed by confusion, then realization; it only flickered momentarily in Jounouchi's eyes, but Yami could instantly tell what Jounouchi was thinking. What he knew upon looking at Yami.

"Oh..." Jounouchi's shoulders slumped. "Right..."

"Hmph!" With that, the nurse stormed out. "And people wonder why _I'm _so rude...!"

The door slammed behind the nurse, almost causing a picture to fall off the wall. Jounouchi jumped up at the sound, landing with a sheepish bite of his lower lip.

"Uh...yeah, she's probably having her period or something..." Jounouchi waited until the nurse's voice was out of hearing, whereupon he immediately took a stool and rolled over to the injured party's side. "...Pharoah?"

"Jounouchi." Yami winced. "It's good to see you too."

"What happened to you?" Jounouchi blinked. "I mean, it doesn't look as bad as the cops said, but...how'd you get so roughed up?"

"...Some random thugs." There was a pause. "I wasn't as careful as I thought I was."

"Er, yeah," Jounouchi frowned. "Usually provoking them isn't a good idea."

"I didn't provoke them," Yami huffed. "They were going to attack me whether or not I attacked them. They were after the god cards."

"The...god cards, huh."

At this, Jounouchi's tone changed subtly. Something had Jounouchi upset, Yami could tell. He was unsure as to what Jounouchi was suddenly on edge for, aside from the god cards, so he tried to alleviate his friend's worries with a small smile.

"...It's all right. They didn't get them, Jounouchi."

"Oh..." Jounouchi shifted his feet uncomfortably. "No, I know. You weren't carrying them. I remember."

"Then why..."

"Um..." Jounouchi instantly grinned - it was fake, another sign of something wrong. "So, the doctor said you're going to be discharged tomorrow."

"...Is that so?" The pharoah was instantly suspicious. "That's a bit quick, isn't it?"

"Well, you have some bruised muscles and jaw and stuff. And you've got a black eye," Jounouchi's eyes shifted left and right. "But other than that, you're all right!"

"...You're an extremely bad liar, you know that?"

Jounouchi looked back over at the other Yugi to find him with an extremely displeased look on his face. The blond bit his lip again, this time harder; he never could lie very well to either of the Yugis. It just wasn't in him, especially when the news could be so potentially devastating.

"...Yeah." Jounouchi looked down at this. "I know. I'm just...trying to soften the blow."

"The...blow?" Yami looked concerned at this. "W-what do you mean? What happened?"

"It's..." Jounouchi looked up. "Promise not to freak out?"

"Freak o..." He stopped. "I'm dying."

"...No..." Under normal circumstances, the suggestion would have been funny. "It's...it's Yugi."

"_Yugi!?_ I-"

Yami quickly went to his chest to grab the Puzzle, to check the spirit on his host, to make sure he was okay. He did so only to find himself grasping empty air and his hospital gown. He gave a gasp, and started to sit up in order to get out of the bed, hoping the Puzzle was somewhere else in the room, that the dream he had - that blackness - was not what he was beginning to think it was.

Unfortunately, the pain was not completely dulled by the morphine, and he found himself struggling.

"Jounouchi...!" Yami gasped. "Where is he!? I have to talk to him-"

"They didn't steal the god cards."

He stopped, and his head slowly turned at this, his eyes wide. In response, Jounouchi looked up, his expression full of pity. He had done his best to try and prepare the pharoah for the news, wanted to, but somehow it never worked out like that. Somehow bad news always came out in the worst possible way.

There was no stopping him from finding out.

"...They...they stole the Puzzle..." Each word felt like a piece of Yami's heart was being carved out. "...They took Yugi."

-----------

_Partner._

It was hard for him to function for the next few days after that, knowing what he knew. They took the Puzzle, they took _him_, all because of his foolish mistake, all because of...

He didn't know how he even made it through the police questioning the next morning. He was too stunned to answer properly. He could only stare up at the ceiling as they took notes.

"And so that's what happened." The officer who took his report was nice enough. "You were attacked by five guys, college-age, and they attacked you. The description you gave is a bit vague; is there any way you can refine it for me?"

"...No." Yami's throat was dry as he spoke. "It was in a dark...place...I couldn't see very well..."

"Mmmhmm." The policeman checked his other notes, nodded as they coraborated the pharoah's response. "And they took a...puzzle?"

"From...around my neck." _Partner. This is all my fault._ "It was gold...but it was of far more...sentimental importance to me."

"Can you describe it?" The policeman's hand went down the paper fast. "I'll need a detailed description in case we find it."

"It's...an upside down...pyramid. Attached to a chain." Yami's voice was empty as he described it. "There's an eye relief on it. It can be unassembled..."

Then the police left, with the promise that they would find the ones responsible for the crime. The pharoah, of course, doubted it. Such an artifact would not be so easily recovered, especially in the hands of those who were unaware what - and who - was contained inside.

It made him feel extremely miserable, though his - more Yugi's but still - friends did their best to make him feel better about it as he was brought home the next day.

"I don't think you've ever actually been to Yugi's school, right?" Anzu Mazaki, the only girl of the bunch, gave Yami a reassuring smile as they sat on the bus. "Don't worry, though, we always stay in one classroom, except for lunch and gym, of course. So you don't have to worry about getting lost."

"We can help on homework and stuff if you get stuck on it too," Jounouchi scratched his head. "Though, I don't know if you and Yugi shared duty on that, but if you didn't...? And, well, I'm not all that great at it...?"

"And," The semi-mohawked Hiroto Honda spoke up, beating his fists together. "I'll teach you self-defense! Yugi still tends to get picked on when we're not looking, so I can show you how to stop an attack using a bento box and your English book!"

"..._Honda._"

The other two gave the boy a look at his suggestion. Honda, though a fiercely loyal friend to both Yugis - as they all were - was not the best person to give a pep talk to anyone, much less a depressed pharoah.

"...I still wish I could go and find him." Yami was sitting up by this time, his head down. "I could use the Tauk to find the people who did this. See what they look like clearly. Then searching them out wouldn't be so difficult. On the other hand..."

"Yeah." The brief moment of hope was deflated by one single detail. "Your grandfather."

Yugi's grandfather, Sugoroku, had been unhappy about what happened, to put it lightly. Unhappy enough to restrict Yami from looking for his own grandson once he was out of the hospital, for fear of the attraction something like that would bring on him, particularly if the thieves happened to be well-connected. He

The pharoah, of course, didn't agree with the idea of simply abandoning the search for Yugi, but knew that he had to at least respect Sugoroku's decision. He wasn't the old man's true grandson, but for all intents and purposes he had to make others i think /i he was. And Yugi had always respected his grandfather's restrictions without complaint, which in the past had been few.

"Well, you just have to do what you have to do!" Honda nodded. "And what you have to do is...be Yugi for a little while until the Puzzle gets found! It shouldn't be that hard, right?"

"...Right," Yami mumbled as he looked at all three schoolmates. "Easy as pie."

The thought of having to pretend to be Yugi indefinitely - with no Yugi to help him - gave him a headache.

--------

"I really i do /i wish we could go and find the Puzzle for him."

The three heaved a collective sigh as they sat down at a bus bench outside of the game shop. Immediately after Yami's homecoming he had been sent to his room and ordered to rest; it was on the doctor's orders, as he still had a considerable way to to go before he could fully recover. As it was, he was not going to be going back to school until the end of the week and Sugoroku thought it best that Yugi's friends leave the pharoah be for the day - to give him space.

"I'd kick the asses of those creeps who stole the Puzzle!" Jounouchi growled. "They have no idea who they messed with!"

"It's too just bad Yugi's grandpa won't even let us touch the remaining Millennium Items," Honda looked up, slightly annoyed. "We'd find them in no time and then reprogram the thugs into thinking they were sea monkeys or something while we were at it."

"...You and monkeys..."

"Hmm?"

"Maybe...maybe we can search on Ebay or something," Anzu looked up thoughtfully. "It may not be the best idea, but it's better than simply doing nothing. In the meantime, though, we'll have to help Yami adjust. No one can be suspicious. Especially not..."

"What's his face?"

"...Bakura," Jounouchi mumbled as he gave Honda a slight look of where-have-you-been. "If _he_ figures it out, we're in big trouble."

"...I don't know how we'll do it..." Anzu gave the others a hardened look. "But for this Yugi's sake, I'm willing to do my best!"

"Me too."

"Me three!"

There was a silence at this.

"...You know what this means, right?"

"...What, Jounouchi?"

"It means," Jounouchi grinned at Honda. "That now we have no excuse not to do our homework. You _know_ Pharoah's going to make sure we do it, right?"

At this, Honda gave a groan.

---------

The boys' homework aside, the headache of being Yugi didn't go away very easily for Yami when push came to shove. Pretending to be as demure and as polite as his counterpart was a challenge of unknown proportions. Walking and talking was extremely frustrating for the first week; he kept stumbling through the wrong honorifics (which meant nearly everyone got their names wrong), eating with the wrong utensils (Yugi almost exclusively used chopsticks with his lunch, Yami learned to his chagrin) and had to be shown by Jounouchi how to watch with a slouched back (which was extremely painful for the excellently-postured pharoah). He even went out of his way to be nice to remaining members of Ushio's old bodyguard clique, as Yugi did, despite the fact that Yami wanted nothing more than to put them all into comas for what they had done to Yugi, Jounouchi and Honda on the fateful day he was revived.

Despite this, Yami managed to adjust somewhat to the awkwardness of those moments, the excuse of his un-Yugi-like lapses being that the beating at the hands of the thugs had been so traumatizing that it took him some time to not be afraid of everyone and get back into his normal routine. It was perhaps the worst excuse he'd ever had to come up with, but amazingly, most people accepted it without question.

No one asked after the whereabouts of the Puzzle, except, of course, the one person that Yami had expected to ask.

"Good morning, Yugi!" Yami's heart froze when he saw Ryou Bakura stroll up next to him on the way to school, his second day back. "Hey, you're not wearing the Puzzle. What happened?"

"Err..." Yami hoped his answer would not arouse suspiscion. "I...decided not to wear it for awhile, Bakura..."

"...Oh! Of course!" Bakura grinned. "Understood. The Millennium Items can be such a burden sometimes. You know, I should really wear mine less often myself..."

"...Of course."

Yami, of course, quickly excused himself and ran on ahead to school. He didn't want Bakura to figure out he was not actually Yugi, if he did not know yet - or rather, he didn't want the _other_ Bakura to find out.

After that incident, Bakura didn't bring the Puzzle up again, though the time the Puzzle was gone began to stretch into weeks. Even he was seemingly satisfied by the information given to him.

Eventually, Yami managed to take full charge of Yugi's life, and with the help of Jounouchi, Anzu and Honda he was able to mostly pick up where Yugi left off in his studies and his activities. He even managed to improve Yugi's math score a little, which impressed his math sensei to no end - it meant he was starting to pay attention in class. He also managed to change the body's bedtime to ten, as going to bed at midnight started to quickly wear down the pharoah, which helped with his concentration. It was, at least to the outside world, as if the attack on Yugi had hardly done any long-term damage to the boy's self-esteem and had, in fact, increased it just a _tiny_ bit.

Nor were the physical marks going to last forever - within two weeks the black eye was a faint purple and his jaw was healed; all that was left was the bruising on his stomach and the strange little stomach scab that had been belatedly discovered by the doctors during their final exam of Yami. Judging by the size, they concluded it was the result of an ingrown hair and advised the boy to leave it be, as it would eventually go on it's own. It was, albeit slowly, leaving a faint reddish mark just below his navel.

_I guess...it's not too bad,_ Yami thought one day, about two weeks after slipping into the role of his lost partner, as he walked down the school hall to his classroom, alone. _Being like this, experiencing his life like this...I miss him, still, everyone knows, but...still. The pain of losing him...isn't like it was before. I think...now that everything's under control...it's getting better. His grandfather will allow me use of the Millennium Items soon to track him down, I'm sure. And he'll be brought back to us. _

_It will get better. It has to..._

It would probably have gone as Yami predicted, if all the odd things hadn't started happening.


	4. Number III

**INCONCIEVABLE**

**Number III **

**_Signs of Something Deeper  
_**

* * *

The first week of August had begun innocently enough, at least in Yami's mind. When he had woken up that Sunday, he had felt a little bit dizzy, and his face felt reddened. The dizziness wasn't anything unusual for the moment - he had started feeling it during gym class the previous week, and as a result he had almost thrown up at the smell of Anzu's perfume - but his face felt like it was on fire. _That_ was new.

He thought it was the heat in his room, and after putting a fan in his room, followed by a few glasses of water, he did feel better. He even managed to eat some of Sugoroku's lasagna, which, in the past had tasted extremely bland, but for some reason tasted very good on that occasion.

"...Hmm?" Sugoroku laughed at Yami regarding the question of when the old man had changed the recipe. "You've got a good sense of humor, pharoah! Go on, have another helping if you like it that much! You've not been eating well these past couple of days."

Yami didn't tell the old man about what had happened in gym class, nor did he mention how he'd down four glasses of water in less than five minutes. The old man probably would have chalked it up to the summer heat dehydrating the boy's body - and as it was, Yami would have agreed with him. Nothing out of place using that perspective.

On the other hand, what happened Monday threw this theory out the window.

"Mmmm...uuuh..."

Yami was in the bathroom at 4:30 in the morning, his seagreen face hovering over the toilet bowl. His stomach was roiling and boiling, ready to bring up anything and anything that was in it at that moment, be it broccoli or bile.

_Mmmph...!_ The boy grabbed onto the toilet as Sugoroku's lasagna, which had such a wonderful taste going down, came back up with a not-so-wonderful taste. _Should not...eat...Italian...uuugh...!_

His next round of wretching woke Yugi's grandfather up, who found him in the corner wiping the sweat off of his brow. The next thing Yami knew, he was in his room, downing cups of hot water. By the time he felt like he was in any condition not to throw up, the clock struck eight.

"...Well, this isn't good." The elder Motoh looked at the pharoah, his finger tapping his chin. "Maybe I _did_ put something extra in that lasagna on accident!"

"...Hmm." Yugi let the heat of the water sear his face; it made his head feel better from the throwing up. "I haven't...been feeling all that well, actually."

"You haven't?" At this, Sugoroku blinked. "For how long? If you haven't been feeling right, it may not be a good idea for you to..."

"...I'll be fine, grandfather." Yami tried to give the older man a reassuring smile. "I think it's just the heat getting to this body. I've been outside for gym a lot, I think, is all."

"...Well, if you think you're all right to go to school. But be careful." Yugi's grandfather pat him on the back at this. "You'd better get going, or you'll end up being late!"

Nodding, Yami got dressed, took up his schoolbag and lunch and ran out the door. He calculated that if he ran at the pace he was going the whole way, he'd be able to get in early without being carded by the student council.

A block and a half away from the house, however, Yami found himself needing to stop and take a breath. The pavement felt like it was pitching and rolling under him, and the wall was tilted and blurred.

_What the..._ He almost threw up again from the nausea. _What's wrong with me? It's still here...food poisoning... stomach virus...!? What is it!?_

Steadying himself on a lamppost for several minutes, he started walking again, this time slowly. Gradually the dizziness wore off, but Yami knew he wouldn't be able to run. Not if he wanted the world to spin like a top again.

_I'm going to be late,_ he thought to himself, annoyed at his body for acting the way it was._I'm going to be so very late. Damnit._

---------

Yami ended up being almost twenty minutes late to school.

"Heheh." Sitting down at the desk next to him, Jounouchi slapped Yami on the back. "Good to see you came, Yugi! We were getting worried when you didn't show up at the first bell. That's not like you."

"Thanks - I just was feeling a bit off so I ended up late," Yami managed a smile. "Hopefully I'll be able to make it through today, since I'll be attending detention this afternoon."

"Trust me! You made it through the first day of school, so you can make it through every day!" Jounouchi gave him a thumbs up. "Even detention! Just doodle if you get bored."

"...I'll keep that in mind."

"And feel better!" Jounouchi had a little gleam in his eyes. "Remember, you and I have a duel at Honda's house, yeah?"

"Of course." A ghost of a smile appeared on Yami's face. "I wouldn't miss it-"

"Motoh!" The sharp voice of the English teacher brought both boys to attention. "Are you quite done talking? Please take out your book as instructed, unless you want bathroom duty this afternoon."

"I...!" Yami's eyes widened, and he quickly bowed his head. "Y-yes, sensei! I'm sorry..."

Yami looked down at his books as the sensei turned back to the blackboard, fumbling for the correct one. Finally he got it out, and he flipped it open with a sign.

"...Now then," The classroom was quiet save for the clacking of chalk on blackboard. "Today's lesson will begin where we left off on Friday, regarding past participles..."

Yami watched as the teacher put her notes on the board, doing his best to write down everything she said and did. However, after sometime, he noticed that his English handwriting was starting to look more like incoherent scribbles than actual letters.

_What is..._ He gave a sigh as he shook the cobwebs out of his head and tried to write again. _This is really getting annoying..._

"...then you bring this over to form coherency..."

Yami did his best to get through the lesson, but it was a struggle. The dizziness ebbed and flowed, and the strange desire to sleep began to nag at him. But he pushed on, refusing to give in, even as the desire became stronger.

_I...slept...long enough!_ Yami cursed his body as his eyes rolled up to the back of his head. _Stay awake, damn you...what is wrong with you...Stay AWAKE!_

Yami kept telling himself this throughout the morning, not feeling his eyes close or his head drooping. He kept telling himself not to sleep, but ultimately, it was in his dreams that this happened. In reality, he had already nodded off.

An hour after Yami inadvertently gave in, the math sensei entered the classroom. Usually, he gave the class a cheerful good morning; however, Jounouchi, at his desk, noted that he was looking rather angry.

_Uh oh._ Jounouchi felt a lump in his throat. _We're getting a quiz, aren't we? Oh, shit, we're getting a qui_

"Attention, class." The classroom tensed as the sensei spoke. "This morning our office received a call informing us that a student at High School 5 was taken into custody for bringing in weapons to school. Apparently he and several other co-conspirators throughout the different high schools in this city were planning to take their schools hostage due to the increased end-exam entrance fees."

There was a slight murmur in the classroom at this. Jounocuhi's eyes widened at this, and he went to look at his friend for his reaction to this news. To his shock, however, Yami was slumped over in his chair, his breathing heavy. A small snore escaped from his mouth.

_Wh-what!?_ Jounouchi's mind screamed. _Wh-what the hell!?_

"I have been asked to do a desk check to ensure that no one is carrying any dangerous items." The sensei started towards the first row. "When I come to you, please open your desk and reveal the items placed therein. This will only be a few minutes; we will then start with our lesson. I apologize for having to do this, but I would hope you'd see the necessity for doing this."

The murmur came back from the students, but it was one of relent. One by one the desks were opened, and the teacher filed through schoolbags, papers, and lunch boxes. When he was satisfied, he gave a nod, and moved onto the next student.

"Y-yugi...Hey...!" As quietly as he could, Jounouchi began to poke the pharoah's arm. "Come on, wake up! Teacher's coming around!"

Yami did not respond to his touch, and Jounouchi began to panic as the tsensei finished the first row of students. He was coming towards Yami, giving Yami a frown as he saw that the boy looked like he was sleeping. Jounouchi gave a gasp, and started poking the pharoah harder.

"Yugi...Yugi!?" Soon, Jounouchi's whisper became sharp, and the poke became a very hard pinch on the underarm. "_Pharoah_!!"

Yami's eyes immediately bolted open, and he managed to collect himself just in time for the desk check. Quickly he opened his desk and allowed the sensei to see his schoolbooks, lunch and Duel Monster deck. The sensei shuffled through his desk, frowning, but seeing that he had no weapons on him, moved on with a nod.

"Mmm." Yami blowed his head while blinking his eyes, as the sensei left the classroom with his checkpad. "I wonder what that was about now? And..." He looked down at his arm. "Did you just _pinch_ me?"

"Of course I pinched you! Sensei just told us he was doing a desk check for...?" Jounouchi stared at the pharoah. "Wait, how long were you_asleep_, Yugi?! It's almost lunchtime now!"

"...I was asleep?" Yami looked genuinely surprised. "Huh, are you sure? Surely, I thought...I was telling myself _not_ to."

"Yes..." Jounouchi's eyes narrowed. "It didn't work, though. Have you been getting enough sleep, Pharoah? You better be..."

"Yeah, yeah..." Yami rubbed the sleepers out of his eyes in confusion. "I went to bed early last night. I was really tired...I woke up a bit early, though, so..."

With that, Yami gave a slight yawn, and began to take out his lunch. Jounouchi watched as he began to take several bites out of the egg salad sandwich, frown, and then put it back into the box.

"...This doesn't taste right." Mumbling, Yami took out Yugi's little coinpouch from his schoolbag and counted out several yen. "I think I'll go get something from the cafeteria today. Watch my bag, Jounouchi?"

"Yeah..."

Jounouchi looked at the sandwich, than back at the pharoah as he exited the room. Quietly, he picked up the food and bit into the uneaten parts. He took his time munching on it, in order to figure out what it was that didn't taste right to Yami - the texture, the mayonaise, or maybe the egg was expired. Something, _anything_.

In the end, though, even after taking another bite, Jounouchi couldn't find anything wrong and was almost tempted to eat the whole thing himself. Almost.

_What the heck?_ The half-eaten sandwich was returned, and Jounouchi stared at it, a flicker of concern in his eyes. _What's going on, Pharoah...? Are you really ok...?_

------------

"...Ugh, that was _brutal_."

Jounouchi kept his eye on Yami as he came out of detention, having waited even after being dismissed for him. He looked pale coming out of the school building, and his walking seemed somewhat unsteady; his eyes were half-closed and kept drooping.

"You don't have to tell _me_. I've done detention before." Quickly Jounouchi crooked his arm into Yami's just as he seemed ready to fall over. "What the hell's wrong, Pharoah? You've been acting off all day."

"Mmm." Yami closed his eyes. "I think...I'm sick."

"You _think_?" Jounouchi scoffed as he led Yami out of the gates. "How about you _are_?"

"I'll be fine, Jounouchi," Yami muttered. "So I threw up a little this morning."

"_What_?!"

"...And I threw up again during modern literature. But other than that..."

"So _that's_ why you took forever when you...!" Jounouchi gave him a very annoyed look. "You know, _really_. You should've gone home, you idiot!"

"But I _know_ why I'm not feeling good," Yami growled in response, feeling his anger suddenly rise. "I had something last night that just isn't agreeing with me. That's all, honestly. There's no need to interrogate me."

"...You better be right."

With that, Jounouchi dragged his friend the three blocks to Honda's house. He was pretty sure that a duel would make Yami feel better - and hopefully take his mind off of the strange behavior of the spiky-haired boy.

_These symptoms..._ Yami looked down worriedly at the ground as Jounouchi rang the doorbell. _So unusual. Why am I..._

His eyes briefly widened as a terrible thought struck him. It had been almost a month since Yugi, and the Puzzle, had been taken from him; before, they'd never been separated for more than one day. The terrible thought made sense to him the more he thought about it. The timing, the symptoms...

_Wh-what if...this body...is reacting to Yugi's absence...by falling apart!?_

-----------

"...And now I end my turn."

Jounouchi sat back and watched as the pharoah looked over the playing field with a frown. Jounouchi was leading the duel by 600 life points, and had summoned Kojikocy, which had destroyed Happy Lover with little problem. The blonde also had a face-down card, which denoted a trap or effect of some kind. Drawing a card, Yami looked over what he had in his hand, looked at what Jounouchi had on the field, and nodded.

"Pot of Greed," Yami discarded the magic card and drew. He then took up three cards out of his hand. "I summon Kuriboh to the field, and I lay a card face down."

"...Oh boy."

Jounouchi gave a gulp at this. Not so much at the face-down card Yami was playing, which could probably be destroyed by the Goblin during his turn - at least, that was the hope he was grasping at. But face-down card or no, the Kuriboh was a sign that Yami had something up in his sleeve, and it would be nothing but trouble the next turn - even with Jounouchi having Chasm of Spikes as his trap card. That was a certainty that had been learned by experience - Kuriboh was not a card to laugh at, especially in the pharoah's hands.

Thankfully, Jounouchi's inevitable fate was delayed by the sound of a clanging pot.

"Dinneeer!" Honda cheerfully set the large, steaming pot on the table. "And don't worry, I made plenty for people to have seconds!"

"Um..." Jounouchi sniffed, then plugged his nose. "Wh-what the heck did you make? It smells wierd..."

"_Chili_!"

Immediately the top came off, and the inglorious creation was revealed. The food was sizzling and burning on the sides, and large chunks of various unknown foods - all blackened - seeped up to the bubbling surface. The smell reminded Jounouchi of raw sewage, and he her to turn away from the table in order not to throw up. It wasn't even red-looking; it was a disgusting green color bordering on brown, as Honda had used what looked like outdated guacamole paste, instead of proper chili mix for the food.

"_Hondaaaa!_" Jounouchi squeaked angrily as he continued to hold his nose. "That is _not_ chili! That's expired nacho dip!"

"Hey, like _you_ can cook!" Honda glared as he scooped out a soupy ladleful and plopped it into Yami's bowl. "Don't make fun of it! It's delicious, and unlike normal chili it's packed with vitamins and minerals!"

"And also loaded with scores of botulism," The blonde boy muttered in response. "Just_what_ did you put in this!?"

"Stuff!" Yami poked at the bowl with his spoon, unsure, as Honda responded. "Let's see. I mixed some curry powder in with lime juice and tofu paste, and then added some lima beans and chicken. Then, I put in some string beans, some leek, some celery, a bit of eggplant, salt, pepper, then while I cooked it I added some squid-"

"Wh-_whaaat_!?" Jounouchi's eyes bugged out. "What the _hell_ did you do, clean out all the crap from the fridge and _dump_ it in!?"

"_Hey! Not crap!_"

"Looks like it to me!"

"Hmph!" Haughtily, Honda plopped some into Jounouchi's bowl, causing a piece of it to fly into his hair. "You're just a picky eater."

"Mmmmmmmmm...!" Angrily, Jounouchi wiped his hair out. "It's not pickiness, it's a desire for self-preservation!"

"Just shut up and eat it."

With a growl, Jounouchi stabbed the concoction with his spoon, bringing up a very unsavory-looking piece of food that looked like it was better suited for a nuclear plant. As quickly as he could, he pinched his nose even tighter and threw the grub in. Instantly his eyes bugged out as the taste - which he could only describe as a cross between miso soup, ranch dressing and a vegetable medley gone wrong - kicked in, and he grabbed his napkin and spat it all out.

"_Braaaaagh_!" The blonde glared at Honda. "This is the most _disgusting_ thing I've ever tasted! Did you baste this thing in _sewage_!?"

"Hey! I spent an _hour_ cooking it!" Honda growled. "Don't throw my food up!"

"Well, I wouldn't throw your food up if it wasn't _gross_!"

"You just don't know a good meal when it hits you in the face!"

"Well, it _did_ hit me in the face," Jounouchi glared. "And I think it's the worst thing I've ever tasted, and I hope you dump it into the garbage!"

"Why you-"

"Stupid-"

"**BURP!!**"

The two immediately stopped their fights just before coming to blows, turning to see Yami covering his mouth. In response, Yami looked at them sheepishly, his face beet red.

"...Phew. Excuse me." Yami's head went down as he wiped his mouth with his napkin. "Sorry, that was rude...just came out of nowhere."

"...Are you ok, Pharoah?"

"Of course." Yami looked at Honda. "Actually, Honda, I was hoping you wouldn't mind if I had another bowl of your chili...stuff."

"Another-!?"

At this, Jounouchi looked at Yami's bowl and nearly fell over. It was completely eaten, to the point where it looked like Yami had taken his finger and rubbed it around the sides of the bowl to get all of the extra 'chili' off.

"G...guh..." Jounouchi's eye twitched. "Are...you..._kidding_!?"

"Haaaahaa...!" Honda gave Jounouchi a smug look as he made Yami a new bowl, as well as making one of his own. "Two again one. Looks like you've been out-eaten, Mr. Gambler...!"

At this, Honda took a huge bite of his food and gave it a few chomps, only to immediately cough and hack it back up seconds later. His face turned blue as he quickly leaped up from the table grabbed a giant bowl from his cabinets, filled it with water, and chugged it down in three gulps. Then, he took the bowl and filled it again, this time washing his mouth out and spitting the water into the sink after each sip.

"...Hmph." It was not Jounouchi's turn to look smug. "_Now_ who's been out-eaten, Mr. Janitor...?"

"_Shut up_!" Honda spun his head towards Yami. "Y-yugi, how can you have_another_ bowl of that _abomination_!? _I_ can't even stand it...and _I'm_ the one who made it!! What are you_thinking_...!?!"

"...I'm thinking..." Yami took another bite and swallowed it, his face still extremely red. "That you both need to get past your gag reflexes."

"_**Whaaaaaat**_!?!?"

"And..." Looking around, Yugi wiped his brow. "Is it just me, or...did it suddenly get hot in here...?"

"QUICK, GET IT AWAY!!"

Instantly, the bowl of chili was yanked out from under Yami's place. The next thing he knew, the pharoah was suddenly pinned to the wall by Honda, who was hovering the bowl of water menacingly over his head.

"What the..." Yami squeaked. "What the hell are you _doing_!?"

"Saving you! Hel_lo_!!" Honda brought the bowl towards Yami's mouth. "Quick! Drink this before your insides explode!"

"Why?"

"The chili!" Honda's expression indicated he was dead serious. "Soon it'll boil your intestines and it'll take _forever_ for me to clean it off the wall! I can't take any chances! _Drink!!_"

"I-" Yami growled. "That _does_ not happen from eating chili!"

"From this one it does! Your face is beet red-"

"I'm _fine!_" The next thing Yami knew, he was screaming at Honda, his temper shot. "For the love of everything _holy_, stop _acting_ like I'm a _child_, and _give me my damn chili_!!"

Silence. Honda stared at the red-faced pharoah as if snakes had started pouting out his ears. Yami himself was surprised out his outburst; he didn't realize why or how he'd gotten so quickly angered. But it had it's effect; Honda slowly stepped back from the pharoah and put the bowl of water down on the table.

"Uh..." Honda gulped. "Are...you sure...you're feeling ok, Yugi? This isn't like you..."

"I told you I'm_fine_." Yami felt his ears burning as he grumbled. "I'd just like to have my chili without you acting like it's the end of the world."

"Uh, Honda's got a point, Pharoah." Jonouchi's eyes narrowed again. "Your face is almost purple!"

"Purple?"

"Yeah..." Jounouchi looked down. "You know, maybe...maybe you should go home."

"But I..." Yami felt his anger rising again. Why was he being so emotional over a bowl of chili? "I haven't even finished my...and...our duel..."

"It's ok, man. We can take a rein check on it." Jounouchi turned away. "But...I think it might be a good idea for you to get some rest. You know, with the...with what happened in math class and all..."

"...Whatever."

Yami's eyes narrowed, but he refrained from saying anything out loud as he stomped over to collect his items, as he knew that if he said something he would regret it. Still, the two of them were completely overreacting over the smallest thing. It was just chili, or whatever it was that Honda made, and so what if his face was flushed and felt like he was in a sauna? It was really nothing for i them /i to be worried about.

_...Or what if it's...Yugi..._

"...Hmph. I'm gone." Before he left, however, he turned back around with a glare on his face. "Honda, you'd _better_ not throw that food out. I'll be coming by to pick it up tomorrow night."

"Wh-" Honda's eyes bugged out. "_All_ of it!?"

"All of it."

The collective groan by Jounouchi and Honda was cut off by the slamming of the apartment door.

---------

Yami walked back towards Kame Game Shop, feeling the nausea start to come over him again. Without a word he took his shoes off and started towards the back of the shop. Looking on from the register, Yugi's grandfather frowned.

"You still look awful, Pharoah," he spoke, his use of Yami's true identity of sign of concern. "You should probably get some rest. You look like you've been hit by a truck!"

"Grandfather?"

"I can close the shop on my own," Sugoroku waved him off impatiently. "Go on now, get going!"

With a sigh, Yami reluctantly obeyed, dropping his school supplies into the bedroom and changing into pajamas. Thankfully, his homework had been done during detention, though , as with many things during the day, it felt like he was pulling his own teeth doing it.

_Mmm..._ Yami almost flopped onto the couch, exhausted. _My head hurts..._

He flipped on the television, only half-paying attention to the TV Tokyo News as it came on, its various personalities reporting a variety of news reports from all over the world. The Americans did something that angered half the world, as per usual. Toys made in China were recalled for killing children. A business executive for Thai Airlines died after an unidentified tumor ruptured his spleen. Peru was hit by an earthquake, and a hurricane was about to hit Mexico. The Toyo Carps were beaten by the Swallows.

_It's things like this that makes people wonder about the world today,_ Yami thought drearily. _I personally feel like taking my head and shoving it into a pot of boiling hot water right now._

Instead, however, he found himself drifting off to sleep as the televisions droned on, and soon, he was slumped on the couch, sleeping once more.

_Aah, Pharoah._ With a sigh, Sugoroku put a blanket over the teen's still body. _I know it's hard, being in this body the whole time. But we'll find the Puzzle. Don't think I've given up on that…..or on Yugi._

He glanced over at the corner at this. Yugi's computer hadn't gotten much use since he'd left, at least not by Yami. Sugoroku, on the other hand, had been using nearly every day since the incident, contacting everyone he knew who would have any interest in finding the Puzzle - or stolen artifacts, for that matter. So far, there had been nothing promising. But he was confident that could change any day.

_We will find him…..we will!_


	5. Number IV

**INCONCIEVABLE**

**Number IV **

**_The New Figure  
_**

* * *

So it began.

She knew it would be successful - it always was. That this newest subject was young posed some problems of its own that older patients lacked - still-immature organs, potentially disgusting eating habits, parental units asking embarrassing questions, and so on and so forth. Overall, however, she had the feeling that she'd finally picked someone capable of carrying out her dream to it's ultimate realization - no, not just someone, _the right one_.

Even so, there was always that fright that nothing would come of it; that somehow, the host body would not accept what was given them, would reject it somehow and the effort would be a failure. Memories of the past were key to that old fear, a past marked by frustration and anger. A past which was rendered utterly meaningless for the figure as the years passed, and yet at the same time served as the catalyst and motivator for her current quest.

Then of course, there was the phase after, when the _real_ test occurred. The previous vessel she'd been watching had failed; officially the breakdown had occurred last night, but she had expected it for some time. She'd felt some sadness that her dream would not be realized - through _that_ particular avenue. But that was as far as her remorse went.

In the very beginning of her turn with the project, with every success, she would go and congratulate the subjects on the success of the first phase of the experiment, and wish them the best, promise to check in on them personally. She'd even come to their homes for tea of cake if they invited her. With every failure, she was there to console, a shoulder to cry on. But that was before she decided to rebel - now she was far past the point of seeing her subjects as real people with lives of their own outside of her project. Now they were all merely vessels, containers with numbers assigned to them, all pieces of the larger picture that slowly emerged. Every success and failure was merely a small part of the larger statistics, information filed away onto computers, notebooks, napkins.

Also in the past was celebrating the occasion, though in this case the figure allowed herself to go out to a restaurant, a nice expensive Italian restaurant, that allowed her to use her laptop as she ate. Even now she couldn't rest. She had to keep watching, make sure everything was going well. Taking her eyes away could mean missing something important.

_Excellent._ She gave a smile as her food was set down in front of her. The smell of alfredo filled her nostrils as she confirmed the schematics. They were positive in every way, even better than she expected._Absolutely….__excellent._

Test Number 43 was up and running. All was well in the world.

---------

Another month passed, and most of the bruises continued to heal; little seemed to change in Yami's Yugiless existance. Searching for the Puzzle yielded no clue as to its whereabouts, no sign of where the thieves may have taken it. Nothing appeared on the Internet or in the newspapers, and he couldn't rely on the Millennium Items since they were well-hidden from him by Sugoroku. It was as if it had never existed, and the longer the Puzzle was gone, the more unsettling it became for Yami.

Aside from the puzzle, though, Yami himself still felt sluggish. He simply couldn't understand what was going on, why he was so tired all the time. He changed his sleeping habits and tried eating more green vegetables (which, to his surprise, tasted a lot better than he remembered); he even asked Honda to make more of his chili, to which the surprised (and understandably worried) Honda happily complied, as it had so many vegetables in it. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to sleep all the time, sometimes practically falling asleep the moment he walked through the door.

What was worse was the vomiting, which also didn't seem to be going away. In fact, the nausea that always preceded the inevitable seemed to start happening at very random times of the day, nothing like the flu as Yugi's grandfather came to think. Many times it was at the most inconvenient moments, such as during a mid-term math test where he almost didn't make it to the toilet because the sensei didn't believe him. There was simply no rhyme or reason, it merely _happened._

So whenever the strange symptoms came up, he went back to that one terrible reason, and eventually, he accepted it as gospel.

_I wonder..._ Yami mused worriedly one particular night as he started to change into pajamas. _What will happen now?...The longer this goes on, the worse it's going to get, I know. I've got to figure out how to get the Puzzle back._

It seemed logical to him. Yugi and the Puzzle had disappeared just before the onset of the strange problems he was having. Over a month had gone by - meanwhile before then Yami hardly ever possessed Yugi's body for more than a day. Perhaps his body was reacting to that...perhaps it was reacting to the fact that Yami was not the true spirit of the body, that he was just a substitute, and so it was forcing him to compensate. The longer he was separated from Yugi, Yami feared, the worse the symptoms would get.

But he wasn't ready to tell anyone just yet of his suspicions - after that first week of sickness, Yami had been lucky that most of the more humiliating episodes - mainly the vomiting - had occurred when his friends had not been in class due to lunchtime, different classrooms or their simply being absent. He had to make sure he was right about the Puzzle and his body, confirm his fears. After all, it was mainly his burden to bear, and he knew his friends would flip out if they found out he'd been sick for a month and counting. There was also the promise he'd made to Sugoroku, which definitely hampered any search for the Puzzle. He would have to bide his time.

_...Yes...my burden._Yami nodded as he began to pull his night pants up. _I can't let the others worry needlessly. To do that...I don't know if partner would forgive me._

The pharoah bent over to get his night shirt, but he paused for a moment mid-bend, and frowned. Something was off. Straightening back up he adjusted the waist of the pants, then the legs, trying to figured out if he was wearing it wrong. He even checked to make sure the tag was in the back, but ultimately, the result was the same.

_Hmph. I've gained weight._ Noticing, then feeling, the small bulge in his midsection for the first time, the pharoah bit his lip in annoyance as he picked up his shirt and walked out of the room. _That figures. I'll have to ask Honda to stop making that damn chili for me. It's far too addicting..._

He walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, tossing the shirt onto the sink. Too much, he just had too much on his mind. The Puzzle, Yugi, the strange problems, of course he was going to gain weight eating the way he did, and it was going to show in his pants. Yet he had also been eating the vegetables, in fact, tons of them, and did that make people gain weight...? Yami rubbed his head in frustration at the question as he turned on the light.

And nearly screamed at the sight he saw in the vanity mirror on the door.

"Wh-"

He managed to clamp his hands over his mouth before it could all get out, but it did not diminish the horror at what he saw. His torso, his i chest /i was...it...

_Oh gods...oh gods..._

One of Yami's shaking hands slowly went down toward one of his nipples, which looked dark red, almost purple, and began to feel around it. He was hoping he was wrong, hoping he was just hallucinating at what he was seeing. Hoping he was just _dreaming_...

_...no..._

His eyes could deceive him, but his hands could not - the area around there was painful to touch, but worse, definitely bigger than he remembered. Not by much, but both sides were more swollen outward, more rounded, like-

_no, No, NO, **NO**!!_

Yami almost ripped the light socket out of the wall as he turned it off, and he immediately flung the door open and ran back to his room as fast as he could. His bedroom door slammed behind him; he didn't care whether his grandfather noticed or not. Instead he immediately flung himself down onto the bed, huddling into a fetal position as he violently shook.

_I...I..._ His eyes were wide and bloodshot as he felt his chest again, completely horrified at the realization. _I...have...b-_breasts

A soft breeze came through the overhead window, but Yami did not notice that it was even open. He was too out of it to realize it. Nor did he see the figure slowly making his way towards him, thumping his free hand on a syringe.

_This can't be...this can't be...Even, even if this is because of….Why...WHY-_

A hand suddenly clasped over his face, and on instinct Yami's arms flew away from his chest and towards the hand in order to get it off. Almost immediately he felt a sharp pain stab his neck, and though he fought the sudden onset of dizziness, tried to keep his eyes open, within seconds whatever had been injected to him did its work, and he fell forward on the bed, his entire body still, his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Hmmmm." A pair of glasses glinted in the night. "Have a good sleep. You'll need it."

Picking the unconscious boy up and hoisting him on his back, the figure quietly swiped a pair of jeans and a black shirt from the dresser. The figure then climbed out of the window, shutting it tightly before climbing down the side of the building via the waterspout. Several seconds later, the sound of screeching tires echoed through the street as a black van flew into the night.

"Yugi! _Yugi!_" A minute later, the door to Yugi's bedroom swung open, and Yugi's grandfather stepped in. "What's going on? Why are you slammi-_Yugi?! YUGI!!!_"

The dresser drawer was still open, but other than that, Yugi had vanished.

-----------

_Cold...it's cold..._

_Partner..._

The table underneath Yami jolted slightly from the bumps in the road, and Yami winced from the recoil as he opened his eyes. It was very dimly-lit, wherever he was; very small and stuffy. As his eyesight became used to the darkness, he found himself looking up at metal rivets, lined with leather roofing. He was in some kind of a car; for what reason, he didn't know. Kaiba, perhaps...

"Gooooooooood morning." The figure sitting right next to him caused him to bolt up, his eyes wide. "I see you had a nice little nap. How's my Japanese?"

"Wh-what!?" The pharoah nearly jumped off the table and slammed the man's head into it, but he was waylaid by another jolt which caused him to fall back onto his behind. He noticed at this point that he'd been changed out of his night clothing and into jeans and a grey shirt. "Where the hell am I!? Who are you!? What-"

"Heey! Calm down,_caaalm_!" The figure - male, American, grey hair and large, rounded glasses - brought a finger to his lips. "No need to lose your temper, no need to stress. Stress is bad for the baby, you know."

"...Baby?" Anger gave way to confusion. "What baby?"

"That one. What other one am I talking about?"

With that, the man pointed to Yami's midsection before swiveling away towards a computer monitor. With the flick of a switch, it turned, and as if it were a cue, the van they were came to a stop.

"...Heheh...baby...sure." This guy had a very weird sense of humor, and it was irritating Yami more than he thought it would. "You think I'm pregnant, how cute. But I'll play along."

"You certainly _will_, my friend!" Swiveling back towards Yami, the man flashed a smile. "Because you have no choice in the matter. Dr. Mark Carroll, at your service. Whether it's wanted or not. Sorry, not shaking your hand, I'm not that kind of doctor. And you are...?"

"Pissed off," Yami's response came out bluntly. "Because you basically kidnapped me from my room in the middle of the night. Do you work with Kaiba or something...?"

"Kaiba? I don't think I know what you mean. I hate toys." Suddenly, the man took out a giant bottle of water. "Here. Drink this."

"Wh-No!" Yami felt his face flush angrily. "Tell me who you're working for!"

"Not Kaiba. It's just water."

"And _why_ should I be drinking it?"

"Because!" At this, the man waved theatrically to the monitor. "I can't do an ultrasound properly unless you have a full bladder."

"_Ultrasound_?" Ultrasound, of course, connected to the supposed 'baby'. "Look, I'm not pregnant, all right? I'm a man."

"So?"

"So..." The American seemed so _cheerful_ when he said that. "You are making no sense whatsoever. Men don't get pregnant! That should be obvious!"

"Look. Just drink the water." Carroll smiled. "Humor me. Come on, I'm an American, I need all the funny I can get right now. You know, moral superiority and the Christian Front and all that bullshit we spout on television. Right? Right. C'mon."

Yami begrudgingly looked at the bottle, then at the doctor, then back at the bottle, before finally popping it open. It was clear that this man was crazy, thinking that Yami of _all_ people could be pregnant. A man, never mind a man who'd never even had sex (Yugi, of course, made Yami promise to go crazy when he was in control, not that Yami would have ever actually _gone_ crazy like that) didn't get pregnant, and certainly couldn't get others pregnant either. Indeed, Yami was considering whether a penalty game was even appropriate for the doctor, as he seemed deluded enough as it was. There was no need to make it worse.

He was a little over half way done with the bottle when it was yanked out of his hands.

"Ok, that's enough." The doctor took several sips of the water before tossing it aside. "Waste not, want not, and I can see you don't want anymore."

"I didn't want any to_begin_ with."

"Too bad." The man smirked. "You have to do what I tell you. I'm like Tony Danza. I'm the Boss. Not that you've actually ever _watched_ that show, actually. Maybe instead think of me like the prime minster, only taller, cooler, bigger eyes and _infinitely_ more intelligent. Do you know who your prime minister is?"

"Do _you_?"

"Nope!" Carroll admitted it as if it were a badge of honor. "I'm American. I don't need to know such trivial and pointless crap."

"Ha," Yami mumbled. "Charming."

"I try to be," the doctor said cheerfully. "Now lift your shirt up."

This got an immediate glare of apprehension as a reaction from the nameless pharoah. Carroll, of course, held his expression, indicating he could care less about the angry daggers forming in the boy's eyes.

"I _beg_ your pardon."

"Lift your shirt up," the man shrugged as he took out a transducer connected to the computer alongside him. "I didn't make you drink all that water for nothing. Got to get a good look at the baby, yeah?"

"For the _last time_, I'm _not pregnant_." The eye of Wadjat very briefly flickered on Yugi's forehead. "That is impossible. Completely. And _utterly_. _Impossible_."

"And you know this..._how_? Because you're a man? Because everyone says it's not possible?" Carroll looked at Yami with amusement. "So what? Just because _orthodox_ medicine says it is impossible, does not _mean_ it is impossible. So tell me, have you been throwing up a little lately? Maybe having a 'prolonged' stomach bug?"

"Throwing up does _not_ mean-"

"Have you?"

"...Yes," Yami gritted his teeth. "But _not_ always at morning, thank you."

"A_ha_, _common_ misconception. 'I don't throw up at morning, I can't be pregnant'. Oh well. Popular culture wins this round." The doctor rolled his eyes ever so slightly. "But perhaps you've noticed yourself maybe getting sick over certain odors you normally don't get sick over?"

"Anzu changed her perfume, that one ti-"

"Changed eating habits? Aversion to certain foods, maybe a sudden liking to others?"

"Like..." Yami remembered Honda's chili and winced. "But what doe-"

"Sudden headaches? Sleeping more? Weight gain? Nausea? Constipation?" The doctor looked at Yami's chest and chuckled. "Swollen and painful breasts, maybe?"

"Will you _shut up_!" Instantly Yami's arms immediately covered himself, and he have a growl of disapproval at the mention. "There is _nothing_ wrong there!"

"Touchy, huh? Trust me, you don't look like someone who should even _have _a cup size. But your reaction says it all. If _you_ could tell something was wrong, _I_ could tell something was wrong. Doctor, remember?" Carroll tugged at Yami's shirt. "But enough yammering about. If you want to prove me wrong, you're going to have to trust me. And if I'm right...well, then you _really_ don't have a choice. Shall I?"

Yami kept glaring at the doctor - because deep down, he knew the doctor was right, and he_hated_ that the doctor was right. Worse was the moments he'd experienced in the past month - sleeping in class without reason, the stomach bug, his eating, the weight gain. And yes, the damn swelling in his chest, even if it was minimal, had frightened him and took him off-guard. In a way, it _did_ sound like pregnancy.

Yet for Yami it was perhaps all easily explainable in another way, somehow, even his chest. It had to be separation from Yugi and the Puzzle, and his prolonged sojourn in Yugi's body, causing everything. He'd already come to that conclusion. Even if it wasn't from being separated from the Puzzle, there was simply _no_ plausible way he could be pregnant, but if he humored the doctor he'd eventually be let go. He_had_ to be let go.

_Yes,_ he thought to himself grudgingly as he slowly lifted his shirt up, revealing the small stomach bulge underneath. _Sure, I'll humor you, fool. This man is insane. His ideas are impossible...I could actually be in agreement with Kaiba on something for once...yes, think like Kaiba..._

"Hmmhmm." The second Yami lifted his shirt up he was suddenly inundated by cold on his stomach, and he shivered and hissed violently. "Ohoho, sorry, gel's cold. Well, nothing you can do about it except hope you don't go on the table. Aaaand..."

With that, Carroll brought the transducer onto Yami's navel, and pressed it down hard, making the nameless pharoah growl in annoyance as the ultrasound screen lit up and pulsed with sound. This man clearly had no bedside manners. What he wouldn't give to at least be able to kick this man in the head, or perhaps call the cops on him, or even impose a penalty game on him somehow-

His chain of thought was stopped by the odd sucking sound that came from the computer a mere minute after the doctor began. Blinking, he wondered why the computer had suddenly started making that sound, and he turned to look at it, confused.

And his face turned as white as a sheet when he saw the reason.

"What...have we here...?" The transducer was stopped right over the a faded bruise on Yugi's stomach. "Dare I think it's...a heartbeat? The suspense kills me! If that's a _heartbeat_, then..._ta-da_!"

One single twist of the transducer revealed it, and in an instant all of Yami's defenses crashed and burned. There is was, barely a centimeter big, band looked more like a seahorse than anything, but it was there.

And it was _moving_.

"Well, _what_ do you know!" Dr. Carroll cheerfully looked at Yami, as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with the scenario that just presented itself. "Congratulations, you're going to have a baby!"


	6. Number V

**INCONCIEVABLE**

**Number V **

**_Friends That Understand  
_**

* * *

_A baby...a baby. You're going to have a baby._

The look on Yami's face, had Dr. Carroll chosen to acknowledge it, pretty much summed up his inner feelings. Horror, apprehension, horror, disgust, confusion. And, of course, more horror. His face was drained of all color, and his mouth was open as he watched the screen, watched the form of the embryo that stuck out like a sore thumb twitch in his body.

_No...no..._ Fear flickered in his eyes. _This can't be..._I_can't be...this has to be..._wrong

He thought it had been because of his separation from Yugi and the Puzzle. All of the problems he'd had, the vomiting, the weight gain, and...his chest. It made sense. But it turned out it wasn't that.

No, as per Yami's luck since losing the Puzzle, it turned out to be much,_much_ worse than that.

"Hmmm, fetal heartbeat is detected, shape of the embryo and heart development indicates..." the insane doctor tapped his mouth. "You are at _about_ seven weeks, give or take a week in your pregnancy. The placenta is attached to the small intestine for...haha...minimal organ intrusion. Now then, what do you think? Do I sound _crazy_ anymore to you?"

"I...but..." The pharoah was speechless. "..._How_!?"

"The million-dollar question - rather the twenty _billion_ dollar question," the American mused. "But the answer to everything is..._science!_"

"...what...?"

"What you are witnessing, kiddo," At this, Carroll pointed to the embryo on the screen, "is the culmination of nearly thirty years' worth of secret medical research done by Harvard Medical School, John Hopkins and various government laboratories, taken to both it's most wonderful - and in your case, most disturbing - conclusion. May I introduce you to...Agent W."

There was a long silence at this. Yami looked no less horrified, and made no effort to respond. Indeed, he started looking a little bit green.

"...Oh,_fine_, make me explain. Be that way," the doctor rolled his eyes. "It is basically the new evolution of in-vitro fertilization. You know - test-tube babies. We developed _very_ special zygotes - you know, eggs just after they got fertilized - for women who rejected normal IVF embryos and people who are unable to conceive with the best-known mainstream medical help. What we did was, we managed to grease the little suckers with a genetically-enhanced viral coated broth - special stuff containing proteins with names far too long to pronounce - and created the most indestructible future babies in the world."

Silence. Of course, Carroll figured as he watched the teen's expression; he hadn't gotten to the good stuff yet. So he continued pontificating.

"Isn't it great? They don't get miscarried no matter where it's implanted, no matter what organ, and when they stick to that uterine wall, man, they _stick_. And we wired the little cells to be smart like a virus, too - there's _no_ dislodging placenta until birth." Carroll rubbed his hands together, clearly pleased. "Base chance of fertilization is one hundred percent regardless of reproductive conditions based on clinical tests. It's a great way for the sterile people to finally get their own children - and to shut them _up_ about it."

Still silence. At this, Carroll frowned; it was clear that the spiky-haired youth was not impressed at all. It didn't seem to occur to him that Yami was not interested breakthrough embryology - or perhaps he was deliberately ignoring the fact that the kid was simply too shocked at being pregnant to care.

"...Ok, yeah, yeah, get to the point, I know. _Everyone_ does that when I explain to them." Carroll tossed a towel at Yami's head. "Here, wipe the gel off. Of course you're wonder why we're here. Very simple. The...ahem..._problem_ with this perfect scenario is that one of my _esteemed_ colleagues let the test results go to her head a little. If we can do it to females, what else can we do it to. Why not let _everyone_ have a chance to experience childbirth. Why not replace the human race as we know it with a gender-equal society, bla bla bla, let's make the males pregnant if this works. But we kept saying, just because it _can_ be done doesn't mean it _should_ be done. She was a little nuts, but old war wounds can do that."

"..._Really_."

"Yes, really." The doctor looked at the pharoah as he wiped himself off, taking note of the glare in his purple eyes. "I'm not an_idiot_, I know what you're thinking. Hypocrite. Maybe so, but it wasn't ever _my_ intention to go around and randomly catheter people on the street. Agent W embryos were only intended as a last-ditch effort for women who had no other way to conceive."

"And," The pharoah felt even sicker at the idea. "How exactly does this...'colleague' of yours expect someone like me to give birth?"

"Who knows" was the response - the seeming detachment of it was extremely chilling to Yami. "To be honest, almost all of the people she's stuck have died in the fourth or fifth month due to various complications. You know, placenta placement, immune system response, organ rejection, silly stuff like that. And those are the cases I've been able to locate - even with the tracking devices we put in in the unfertilized eggs she's managed to strike without our knowle-"

"_Tracking devices!?_" Yami really _was_ about to throw up. "What the _hell_!?"

"How else do you think I found you? You think I clapped three times and wriggled my nose or something?" The wastebasket was suddenly placed under his nose. "There. I told you, these embryos are_special_, we took every conceivable precaution to prevent their theft. Even if they were stolen, we'd be able to find where they went. You know...baby radar!"

"Urgh..."

After Yami let yesterday's dinner out into the wastebasket, he dropped the basket to the ground and plopped back down onto the table. He could feel beads of sweat cling to his forehead as he let everything the the insane doctor said sink in. Pregnancy, viruses, death...

_Baby radar._ Yami gave a moan at the last thought. _You have to be_kidding _me._

"Well, I can't save you from all the grief, but I may be able to at least help you on your way." At this, the doctor turned the ultrasound off. "After the first couple of deaths my fellow doctors and I managed to create a little cocktail of hormones, vitamins and anti-rejection medication designed to minimize the possibility of complications in a contingency such as yours. It's got a couple of side effects - slightly higher voice, increased body temp, and sorry, can't get rid of the boobs for awhile or else you'll have a lot of problems. I'll give you enough to cover a couple of months. The complications should be minimal if you take it once a day and no more."

"Hmph." Yami's fists shook slightly. "Thanks...I guess."

_Yeah. Thanks for causing this to happen and not trying to prevent it. Thanks for kidnapping me in the middle of the night without any consideration. Thanks for _ruining my partner's body and life_, you asshole._

He really, really wanted to say all of those things desperately. He couldn't forgive this happening. And he had no idea as to how he was going to tell _anyone_. Who would possibly believe him?

"Ok!" The doctor rubbed his hands. "So...are you clean? No more gel?"

"...Yes."

"Good!" The American seemed pleased. "Absolutely perfect..."

-----------

**WHAM**

"Assho-DOOF!"

Yami barely managed to keep his balance as he was unceremoniously tossed out of the back of the unmarked van. Staggering wildly, he crashed his head into a lamppost, collecting himself in time to see the black van screech down the street and out of sight.

_Mmmph._ He gave a low growl as he rubbed his head and pulled his shirt back down. _Yeah, classy._

A rattling sound came from his pants as he began to walk, and he quickly dug his hand into his pocket. Out came a tan prescription bottle with the letter "**H**" scrawled on it; inside were light blue horse tablets. Yami turned the bottle over one time before jamming it back into his pocket.

_Pregnant..._ He looked up to see that he had been dropped off in front of his house. _I'm actually glad...I don't have the Puzzle for once. The way I feel right now, I can't even imagine...how _he_would have reacted. And...everyone else...the game shop...seems quiet._

He opened the door to the game shop with a heavy heart, having no doubt that Sugoroku had probably developed a coronary upon seeing his grandson's bed empty that morning and had gone searching for him. Jounouchi, Anzu and Honda had probably gone to lend a hand, and were probably scouring Domino looking for him. In a way, it was a relief; it would give him time to figure out how to explain everything to the people he - and Yugi - cared about. Plus, he had to go to the bathroom.

He had only taken two steps in, however, before he stopped, his eyes wide at the sight that awaited him at the register counter.

_...Oh no...!!_

"Pharoah!" Jounouchi leaped up from the counter and gave the stunned teenager a bear hug, causing him to almost pee all over himself. "Damnit, quit disappearing on us! We were about to call the cops!"

"Yugi!" Anzu joined the hug. "You're ok! I was so worried!"

"Yugi!!" Honda, his eyes flowing with tears, was last, squeezing into the group hug as best as he could. "Don't i scare /i us like that! With normal Yugi gone you shouldn't be so rash..!!"

"...Guys..."

Under normal circumstances, Yami would have been utterly thrilled to be back, and would have at least apologized for worrying the group, or returned the hug. This was not a normal circumstance, however, and the pharoah simply stayed in one place, tense and frozen. His friends, so glad to see him, immediately picked up on his reaction to their assault, and all three slowly let up.

"...Pharoah?" Jounouchi looked at Yami worriedly. "Is something wrong? It's not Honda's chili finally repeating on you, is it?"

"HEY!" The brown-haired boy squeaked. "_Enough_ about my chili!!"

"Yugi..." Anzu looked down. "Are you not happy to see us?"

Yami opened his mouth to respond, but found himself unable to. 'I'm fine, I've just been somehow knocked up by a psycho' seemed an inappropriate lead-in to the conversation he was being forced to have - or any conversation, for that matter. He gave a nervous gulp.

"Ah..." He wiped his brow, hoping for i some /i kind of rescue from the situation. "I just...need to go to the bathroom. Guys...is...Yugi's grandfather here?"

"His grandfather...?" Jounouchi's eyebrow raised slightly. "Why?"

"Just_tell_ me, is he here."

"...No, he went over to search some of the local game stores for you." Jounouchi's eyes narrowed at the sharpness of Yugi's tone. "But I think I now have a good idea why you'd ask."

"...Is that so?" Yugi felt his anger suddenly rise, even though he knew Jounouchi was right in suspecting him. "And what would that be?"

"Hiding something, maybe?"

"Perhaps," Yami growled, "if I did, I would have a reason for hiding something."

"Hmph, of course _you_ would." The words stung Yami, and his face must have shown it, for Jounouchi glared as he crossed his arms. "I'm beginning to think that to be true. Because honestly? Ever since Yugi disappeared, you've been acting really off. Then you go off and disappear in the middle of the ni-"

"_Please_." Anzu suddenly appeared between the two, who were glaring at one another by this point. "This isn't the time to yell at one another. Yugi, what's wrong?"

"...It's..." Yami looked away. "I can't tell you out here. It's something...private."

"Private enough that you can't tell your own friends?" Jounouchi's face darkened. "Or are we _really_ your friends anymo-"

"Does it have to do with these?"

Yami looked up just in time to see Honda take the bottle of medication out of his pocket. He felt his entire body shut down at the sight of it, and his eyes almost bugged out.

"Y-yugi!?" Honda's voice squeaked as he looked at the bottle. "Wh-what's_this_!?"

"It's..." The feeling of horror returned, and just as he couldn't speak at the sight of the embryo, words failed the pharoah once again. "I...you..."

"'H'!?" Anzu peeked at the bottle and gasped. "It's a drug!? What's Yugi doing with this...!"

"_Drugs_!? Why you-how _could_-!?"

The next thing Yami knew, his back hit the register counter; Jounouchi literally threw him across the room. He gave a grunt as the pain shot up and down his back, and he faced the very surprised and angry expressions of his friends with a look of shock.

"Th-that's-"

"...I thought you were _better_ than that! _Why!?_" Though his fists were clenched and ready to punch, Jounouchi nevertheless abstained from going on his gut instinct to beat Yami to an inch of his life, and instead focused on the bottle. "What the hell is it!? What kind of a drug!?"

"I..." Anzu sounded upset as she opened the bottle and took out one of the pills. "I don't know! It could be anything!"

"Maybe it's cocaine!"

"_Cocaine?_"

"I don't know!" Honda growled. "It's not like _I_ take drugs!"

"These are really big pills..." Anzu looked worriedly. "Why would Yugi need these pills?"

"Hmph, I don't know," Jounouchi looked down, his eyes flashing with anger. "Not that _pharoah_ would tell us, I guess."

That stung Yami, and as the group's discussion continued, his shock slowly turned into anger. He couldn't believe that they didn't have more trust in him, than they did in Yugi, that they were so willing to just put down what was going on as being _his_ fault. It wasn't. It couldn't have been. He had no control over the Puzzle being taken; he had no control...over...

"_Wait_!" Anzu shouted suddenly. "These pills look a lot like the ones one of my father's friends took when...when he was doing chemotherapy!"

"_WHAAAAAT!?_" The two males were instantly on her. "Y-you mean..."

"Yugi...!!" Anzu's voice choked. "That means _Yugi_...!!"

"Oh_no_, why didn't he tell us!?" Honda tore at his hair. "Why, why!? So young, so _young_!"

"Then...these must be black market pills!" Jounouchi stared in shock. "B-but then where is Yugi...where was he getting the money for all of this!? For the chemo-"

"There's only one possible way!" Anzu's voice quivered. "But...but then that would mean he's been..._selling_ himself...!!"

"Ooooh, the _horror!_" Honda was by now crying again. "Our dearest friend Yugi, selling his body so that he could afford the medication he needs to live...!!"

"I could have helped him!" Now it was Jounouchi's turn to tear at his hair. "I _had_ the money! I didn't _spend_ it all-"

That was when the pharoah lost it. All the speculation, all of the accusations - and, quite possibly, all of the conflicting hormones that he now knew were raging along inside of him - made him snap. There was no going back.

"GODS DAMNIT," His own scream rose to the point where it vibrated off of the walls and ceiling. "WILL YOU ALL JUST _SHUT UP_!? I'M _NOT DYING_, I'M _**PREGNANT**_!"

The walls rang from his scream, but the talking from his friends instantly stopped. They slowly turned to face him, their eyes widened, their faces completely devoid of any emotion other than sheer mortification at what he had just said. After several seconds, the pill bottle fell from Honda's hands and bounced on the floor with a rattle.

_...Shit._ Yami realized what he just did, and could only stare back at them with equal mortification. _Shit. Shit. Shit..._

But at least they shut up.


End file.
